I've always been a fan of cheap Japanese motorcycles. Riding is just in my blood as is recycling junk into something useful when I can on the cheap. I also recently split with my wife of over 20 years, and now live farther from anywhere than ever and can afford to drive less because my work has really dried up too, and my '92 Pontiac Sunbird Convertible blew it's sparkplug and insurt out along swith the threads and the heater never worked and it had suspenmsion issues, so I now have a '93 Taurus wagon (3.0 V6) and it gets 3-5 MPG less than the Sunbird. In short I REALLY need cheaper transpo in the WORST way!

I've always had a penchant for "yard finds", bikes that are against a fence with grass all grown up all around them and through the spokes. I've revived many, including a bevy of Honda CB360Ts, and even a CL360T. The biggest and baddest being my last bike 3 years ago, a 1981 Yamaha XS Eleven, with full fairing and bags. Trouble is, the best mileage I ever got out of it was 28MPG, sometimes as low as 25MPG, and I couldn't afford to fix it up (they got at best around 32MPG anyway). One of the attached pics is of this bike. I'm so glad I re-upped my endorsement when I renewed my license even though I didn't have a bike because now I have FRANKENBIKE!

Frankenbike was a derelict 1983 Yamaha XS400K "Maxim 400", that sat in the Port Townsend area weather without even the decency of a tarp over her for 13 plus years. I bought her for $100 as is. The tank had rust holes and rusted through at the seems, both brakes were seized, both tires rotted flat and cracked, back brake shoes rusted into the steel drum mag insert. I threw a $40 set of brake shoes on her, and used miscellaneous epoxy, couple cans of PB Blaster, electrical and duct tape, brake and carb cleaner (plus boiling the carb bodies in vinegar water for an hour), and other than much head scratching and electrical trouble shooting, and gathering of other salvaged parts, all of which I got free, and my time and labor, with the help of my NA sponsor and his tools, air compressor, tire irons, and miscellaneous things I don't have on hand at homes, I have gotten her back on the Highway!

This is a video I took just after I first got it to fire up.

Man is she FUGLY!!! But she is, by far my favorite of the yard finds and just a blast to zip down US 101 on! I plan to slowly little by little improve her, but right now, she has parts from more than 2 different Hondas, a Harley Davidson front tire on the back, a brand new FREE $150 tire off a dead GL500, a battery filched from a Suzuki, VW rotted out mufflers welded to the pipes (and now half tore off with rotted out baffles), and the GL500's tank has a Radiator hose from a Ford between it and the backbone of the bike. I tell you what, this is an ugly $140 bike I am DAMN PROUD OF!!!

She's worth at least $200 even if the engine was blown. The bare frame itself is worth that just because so many of these bikes have no clean title. Doesn't matter anyway, I just needed better gas mileage and that I got in spades!

I kinda meant this too. I didn't mean to come off as a jerk, but if they'd neglected it that long, you might've got it for $50.

No, I got it that you weren't trying to be a jerk. He asked $200, then I countered $150, then when I got out there with my sponsor and his truck he thought it was a piece of junk so Ray just went down to $100 without even haggling, so $100 it was.

Here's a pic of my Frankenbike. It's a 1982 (I think?) Honda CB900 Custom. It has the oddest feature of any bike I've seen -- a dual range subtransmission which works to provide a hi-lo range selection for the main transmission. It needs a full top end rebuild (smokes like a son of a gun) and I just lack the time and desire to go about it.

I wasn't the one who did the stretch/rake job on it. It's not the easiest thing to ride, either. I bought it for $400, not running. After a carb rebuild it runs, but not terribly well. Perhaps some day I'll go about rebuilding the top end, though parts to do so are very hard to come by. Not many CB900 Customs were made.

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

SmokinHawk wrote:Here's a pic of my Frankenbike. It's a 1982 (I think?) Honda CB900 Custom. It has the oddest feature of any bike I've seen -- a dual range subtransmission which works to provide a hi-lo range selection for the main transmission. It needs a full top end rebuild (smokes like a son of a gun) and I just lack the time and desire to go about it.

I wasn't the one who did the stretch/rake job on it. It's not the easiest thing to ride, either. I bought it for $400, not running. After a carb rebuild it runs, but not terribly well. Perhaps some day I'll go about rebuilding the top end, though parts to do so are very hard to come by. Not many CB900 Customs were made.

I know a guy who would probably give you his firstborn or cut off a testicle for that bike. He's been looking for that model high and low! Gonna email him a pic and make him obsess!

That rake on your ride Smokin is pretty radical for that bike. The ape bars can't help in controlling it.

It's definitely a handful at low speeds, especially in residential areas where the speed limit is low. Once you get it above 35-40mph she just glides along, but at low speeds it's a death trap. Someday I'll fix it up properly but for now it remains an oil seeping oddity.

Feel free to contact me if you need legal assistance. I have a great lawyer that helped me with an ex who violated my privacy and kept harassing me on MySpace and Facebook. He's very good. And there is legal precedent. - linuxpro

Still only $210 invested (and there is another bike puzzle to be assembled yet), I give you today's update. I still can hardly believe my good fortune with this machine, though it has not been all pleasant figuring some of it out. It's all more than worth it though!